Publisher: HSRC Publishers, Pretoria, 1998
Series: HSRC Series in Methodology 40
Description: 329 p.
Language: English
ISBN number: 0-7969-1864-3
Price: +/- R125.00

This edited volume presents an introductory chapter and sixteen further chapters (together with a select bibliography), which were commissioned by the subcommittee on methodological and epistemological issues of the "Analysis of Research in the Human Sciences" programme which was conducted between 1993 and 1995 under the auspices of the HSRC. Of the twenty papers commissioned for this exercise in 1995, sixteen have survived into this publication. None have been updated despite the three year gap before publication. The editors say that some of the contributions have been shortened, but no editorial effort was made to homogenise the contents. There is no index, but the table of contents provides sufficient guidance on the contents.

The standard of publication is generally high, but there are occasional proof-reading errors. Although the introduction by the two main editors has some useful material in it, it is poorly structured, and its bibliographical references have been left off. Oddly, in reading Bill Freund's chapter there is explicit reference to a somewhat different array of questions than those listed in the editorial introduction, which he says the contributors were each asked to address. The text also clearly refers to a particular structure of the volume which was not followed in the published version. As a result, the introduction does not provide a balanced account of the substantive contents of the volume.

According to the preface, the methodology and epistemology sub-project sought

"- To present a historical overview of the emergence and development of different methodological approaches within South African social sciences;

- To record attitudes towards methodological and epistemological developments within particular debates;

- To address the issue of, and future scope for, interdisciplinary work in the human and social sciences."

However, the list of these three concerns is not an especially useful indication of the contents, which seem to me better described as involving:

- descriptive accounts of selected methodological approaches within South African social science

- descriptive accounts of selected theoretical debates within South African social science

- descriptive accounts of the development and potential of selected disciplines within South African social science.

The first of these contributions is most relevant in the present context, and it is also where the book displays considerable strength. In the introduction there is a useful but very brief overview of the development of quantitative (pp 11-13), qualitative (pp 13-15) and participatory/action (pp 15,16) research methodological approaches in South African social science - although some of the units referred to as displaying particular methodological expertise have since disbanded.

The six chapters which develop the more technical aspects of methodology include those on:

- Cross-cultural measurement in the human sciences (N.C.W. Claassen)

- Action research and participatory research in South Africa (Melanie Walker)

- Programme evaluation: a structured assessment (Johann Louw)

- Organizational survey interventions (Peter Franks and Allison Cassidy)

- Geographical information systems (E.L. Nel and T. Hill)

- Sampling in heterogeneous populations (D.J. Stoker)

In each of these chapters something of the international context for this approach is sketched in, but the focus lies more in describing the South African situation with respect to each of these methodologies and raising issues from this. The descriptions are relatively short, far too informal, and slightly out of date (being concerned, for example, with the 1991 census). As a result, the glimpses are useful but tantalising. More systematic effort would have yielded more definitive and useful results. A more extended coverage in several extra chapters of all the methodological traditions laid out in the introductory chapter would also have given this part of the book more utility to methodology teachers and students.

The second theme of theoretical (the editors prefer the term "epistemological") issues is also usefully outlined in the introductory chapter (pp 8 - 11). Several quite powerful chapters each follow up debates in an interesting fashion, including those on

- Post-Marxism in South Africa: some provisional observations (Andreas Bertoli and Susan van Zyl)

- Post-Colonialism in South African social science (Windsor Leroke)

- Afrocentrism in South African social science: what has been done, how useful has it been (Themba Sono)

-"Where angels fear to tread": feminism in South Africa (Annmarie Wolpe)

Although the styles and lengths of each chapter vary, each very accessibly and usefully pulls together appropriate literature and effectively lays out the issues for debate. For readers wanting a useful introduction to the local debates around any of these themes, these chapters are an excellent start. Moreover, the choice of theoretical approaches to cover seems appropriate.

The third theme on disciplinary histories within the South African context is least well served. In particular, none broaches the concern with interdisciplinarity which the preface espouses. Topics covered are:

- Economic history / political economy in South Africa: an assessment (William M. Freund)

- The new rhetoric (Philip Nel)

- Explanatory power and truth: the promise of critical realism in theology (Daniel Veldsman)

- Comparative religious studies (David Chidester)

- Normative theory in international relations (Mervyn Frost)

- Deconstructing and reconstructing South African psychology (Peter du Preez)

Only those chapters on economic history and comparative religious studies - and to some extent that on psychology - are at all useful. It is difficult to work out what role the other chapters contribute in this collection. Ironically, the chapter on rhetoric fails to address any obvious audience, that on theology is very technical and completely uncontextualised, and that on international relations merely an account of one scholar's personal research programme. The book would have been much stronger without these three chapters, which - whatever their possible merits in other contexts - simply do not fit into this.

The collection is rounded off by a selected bibliography which covers many (but not all) the more useful of the references provided in the various chapters. It is certainly far from definitive. Even so, scanning the bibliography (and also the list of other publications in the HSRC's methodology series of which this volume is the most recent) tells us much about the highly stunted lack of methodological imagination in South Africa. There are some glaring omissions to this listing. These include John Rex's powerful collection about apartheid and social research and the collection (edited by P. Hugo) entitled "Truth be in the Field." The listing is also shy about including references to the various debates about the methodologies paraded by the HSRC itself in past decades.

The considerable failings and silences of this volume should not hinder careful and selective use by methodology teachers and students. This volume does, indeed, include several useful introductions to several important methodological and theoretical issues in South African social science.